Since I Fell For You(34)

“Alec’s clients would drive you crazy,” Harry pointed out, “and my students probably would too.”

He was right. She had little patience for the filthy rich men and women who used Alec’s private planes. So many of them thought the world should be handed to them on a diamond-encrusted platter. And she would have been a terrible professor. Teaching had never been her gift. She was so impatient to see results that she had a bad habit of accidentally steamrolling past people who didn’t understand what she was talking about.

“Call me if you need anything,” Harry said, and then with a nod to Roman, he was gone, leaving the two of them alone in her office.

There were a dozen things she needed to work on this afternoon, but as she looked up and found Roman staring at her with his dark, intense gaze, she honestly couldn’t remember a single item on her to-do list. All she could do was heat up, inside and out.

And want.

“I just spoke with Craig.”

Roman’s unexpected statement jarred her brain out of its blank state. Her body, however, stayed stubbornly in want, even as she said, “You called him while Harry and I were having lunch?”

“I went to his office and confronted him, face-to-face.”

“You went to see him?” Shock that he’d acted so quickly after their conversation made her brain feel rusty, as if the gears inside her head needed to be oiled. “Why would you do that?”

“After what you told me about your previous relationship with him, it seemed obvious to me that he must be involved in the attacks on your servers and your phone.”

She didn’t realize she was moving toward Roman until she was standing chest to chest with him. “Are you crazy?” She didn’t normally get this emotional in her office. Yes, she was passionate about what she did, but she knew better than to let anger take over on the job. Only, when Roman pushed her buttons over and over again, in a way no one else ever had, all those lessons kept falling away. “I told you he wouldn’t do something like that just because we slept together a couple of times. Why wouldn’t you listen to me?”

“Do you have any idea what sleeping with a woman like you does to a guy?” Roman’s words were low. Raw. “Do you have any idea what your beauty does to a man? The way your laughter reaches all the way inside his chest? The way he can’t stop breathing in your scent? How he’s constantly marveling at how damned smart you are and just wants for one second to be able to see the world the way you see it? Because you’re the brightest, most beautiful woman he’s ever known.” He erased the distance between them as he moved forward to close the final gap. “Any guy who’s lucky enough to be with you isn’t going to want to lose you. Unless he’s a complete fool, he’s going to do whatever he can to convince you to come back. And to stay.”

She opened her mouth to respond, but no words came. Not when every one of Roman’s passionate words were reverberating through her.

No one had ever told her that her laughter, her scent, or her brain affected them this way. And no one had ever looked at her this way either. As though he wanted to kiss her more than he wanted to take his next breath.

When Roman’s gaze dropped from her eyes to her mouth, she could almost taste his kiss from that look alone. Could almost feel the heated sizzle of his skin against hers.

She had never wanted anything more than she wanted to feel his arms around her, the tangle of his hands in her hair, the press of his muscles all along hers as he finally—

“Damn it.”

His curse came a beat before he stepped back from her. Coolness from the air conditioning rushed to fill the space between them…but it wasn’t nearly enough to douse the flames inside her.

“I overstepped, Suzanne.” Each word sounded as if it came from between clenched teeth. “I shouldn’t have said that. Any of that.”

She wanted to move closer again, wanted to tell him she was glad he’d said it. That he’d made her feel special in a way no man ever had before. Because no one had ever noticed her the way he did. Not only as a brain. Not only as a woman.

But as both.

Instead, she said, “Never apologize for being honest with me.” Her words were soft, but serious. “If that’s what you feel, if that’s what you think, I want to hear it.”

“You didn’t want to hear it before.” He wasn’t accusing now, simply pointing out the facts.

She let out a long, hard breath. “I know I can be stubborn.” By the look in his eyes, it was obvious that she needn’t have bothered telling him that, since he’d already figured it out. “But I usually come around when something makes sense.”